On June 28th, the Constitutional Court in Madrid finally made its ruling on the charter defining the scope of self-government in Catalonia within the Spanish state, known as the Catalan Statute. With reference to several informations that have appeared in the international press on this issue, Col.lectiu Emma would like to clarify a few points, beginning with a short history of the process that has led to this outcome.
Around 2005, in the context of Spain’s untidy system of regional devolution, some in Catalonia felt that it was necessary to sort out the ambiguities present in both the 1978 Spanish Constitution and the earlier Catalan Statute, dating from 1979, and set out to draft a new charter for Catalan self-rule. [+]

Col·lectiu Emma's great friend, Edward Hugh, has been profiled at The New York Times: "The Blog Prophet of Euro Zone Doom".
We want to congratulate Edward and thank him again for everything he has done for Col·lectiu Emma and for Catalonia.
P.S. CNN also writes about Edward: "Part-time blogger calls the euro crisis and becomes an unlikely sage" [+]

We would like to bring to your attention the report on high-speed trains in Spain that was published by the Barcelona daily Avui on Sunday May 23.
Some time ago Col.lectiu Emma wrote about a New York Times article on the same topic.
We feel that the whole AVE business is a good example of things that have been done wrong by both Spanish parties when they have been in power. When times were good, huge amounts were wasted on high-profile projects that made little economic sense. [+]

"Pablo Picasso up close and personal" (John Richardson, May 23, 2010) at Times Online.
"(...) Jacqueline, who discouraged communist bigwigs from coming to the house, became increasingly drawn to Spain. She not only learnt Spanish, she also learnt to play the guitar and sing some of Picasso’s favourite songs, including the Catalan anthem Els Segadors. She also did her best to entertain elderly Catalan friends from Picasso’s Els Quatre Gats days, to whom he was passionately loyal. [+]

(Article of Matthew Tree)
Fraga is the capital of the Franja de Ponent: a strip of territory running along Aragon's border with Catalonia, in which Catalan is spoken by a higher percentage of the local population (a total of some 50,000 people) than anywhere inside Catalonia itself. Among these Aragonese Catalan-speakers is Joaquín, a Fraga-born friend of mine, who – when I visited his home town in March - told me about a new problem at work: he has a fixed stand at the ecological fruit and vegetable market held in Saragossa, the capital of Aragon, every second Saturday. [+]

Col·lectiu Emma is a network of Catalans and non-Catalans living in different countries who have made it their job to track and review news reports about Catalonia in the international media. Our goal is to ensure that the world's public opinion gets a fair picture of the country's reality today and in history.

We aim to be recognized as a trustworthy source of information and ideas about Catalonia from a Catalan point of view.[More info]

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